Texas A&M Football Recruiting
Kevin Sumlin's Signing Day press conference
"I guess I'll
start off like the 126 other coaches in the country that will say how
excited they are about this class. This is a class that I think
addresses our needs across the board. We have a plan of how we want to
do things. We've lost some very talented players offensively this year
and we've got to replace those; we had a depth issue last year on
defense and I think the first attempt for us this year was to address
those needs from an offensive line standpoint and the complete defense.
"Our coaches were able to do a great job of evaluation, number one, and establish relationships with those guys and get early commits and hold on to them. Last year we signed 32 and we lost one to the Minnesota Twins for five million dollars. They were here and didn't go to other schools, JUCO. This year the numbers were down, which says a couple things — one, that we don't have a lot of attrition even with the guys declaring early — to be ranked where we are speaks volumes. If you look on the TV now, the top 10 or 20 classes, we have less guys — some people are signing up to 36 folks. That tells you the quality of the evaluation of our coaches. It was at a high level this year.
"Across the board we branched out a bit, probably for the first time since we've been here going out of state to Arizona, Louisiana, some junior college situations, Pennsylvania, some other states we hadn't been in before. That speaks to our brand expanding east and our television exposure over the last year. The trend now more than ever, these guys who committed early began to communicate with each other and recruited each other and helped stay together. They really recruited their own class. The early commitment phase is something people have different opinions about; it works for us.
"We were very, very pleased with this class."
On what it says about the program to be able to pull a No. 1 recruit from another state, such as Kyle Allen in Arizona...
Sumlin:
"It's not one thing. There are a lot of factors involved in that. Right
now we've got a lot of momentum, our administration has really
supported this program in an unbelievable way and student athlete
recruits see that, from our stadium to our weight room and nutrition
center to what's going on with renovations to this building ... there's
just a tremendous amount of support. From a facilities aspect, it's
improving. We were on television almost every week. Moving to the SEC
has given us another stage and expanded our footprint. People think
about it expanding east because of who we play, but I know for a fact
with Qualen and Kyle that us being the furthest west team in the SEC has
also given us an appeal that way.
"It's not one thing, it's a combination of a lot of things while you're trying to increase your brand, your profile and where your program is nationally. What prospects are seeing is the trend of where we are and where we can be based on the commitment from the University to this program and the competitive games we're in. I've said it in a lot of people's homes: we're a program that's trying to go from eight, nine, ten, eleven wins to twelve, thirteen, fourteen wins.
"Talent makes a huge difference in that. Teams that are at that level ... it's no coincidence that Florida State's where they are. They've had top-five recruiting classes the last four years and you can see that when they play. To get to that level, we have to increase our depth and increase our talent level. Fortunately we're in a situation here where we have the resources and administration that provides us with the facilities we need to recruit players. And they see that."
On having six early enrollees...
Sumlin:
"It's big. We started that last year when we had maybe eight, at least,
when everybody was accusing me of oversigning. Shame on you guys.
That's more of a trend now than it used to be, though. Some guys are
done with high school, they're ready to move on. Recruiting has changed
considerably. We're working with 2015. The early commitment phase has
changed everything because of the fact that guys are just not
committing, they're coming to campus, getting to know you as sophomores
and juniors, making decisions, traveling around, getting to see places
and they know where to go to school. When they're done with their senior
year they're ready to move on.
"It works for some and for some it doesn't, but you take our junior college, mid-year guys, they understand it was important to get our offensive linemen in for the spring. Now you've got spring football practice, conditioning, two sets of practices. Kyle graduating early, making a statement that he wants to compete for the starting role, and Speedy also, those guys made a decision to do that a while ago during the recruiting process. It didn't matter where they were going to school, they had that mindset that they were going to go there early and be ready to compete to play.
"It helps a lot. I think you're going to see more and more of that."
On his first impression of Myles Garrett...
Sumlin:
"As a football player? Really good. I was even more impressed when I
went to watch him play basketball two weeks ago. On his visit, it's
interesting, his sister helped us recruit him. She's already here with
our track program. I bugged her a lot. Bugged his parents a lot. We had
everybody but him for a long time. Every time he'd get close to saying
he was going to come to school here he'd get quiet and just drop his
head. I didn't push it because I didn't want to scare him away.
"But I went over to (watch him play basketball) and he's out there running around like a deer and he's huge. He comes down, throws it down and he turned and pointed at me. I said, 'I really like this guy.' (Laughter.) 'I'm a fan.' He's 260 now. He was 258 or so on his visit. He took off his shirt after the game and he looks like a Batman costume. He's put together like crazy. There's a reason he's ranked where he is.
"He's got tremendous upside and he's what we need as an edge threat. He's physically mature enough. We'll see where he is. He's explosive off the edge. At the All-Star game the best players in the country had a hard time blocking him; that's encouraging for us."
On the linebackers they signed...
Sumlin:
"They're kind of interesting. They run really well, which is one thing
we really need. Josh (Walker) is a bit different player than (Otaro)
Alaka. Alaka is rangy, longer, had a lot of different options in high
school and is going to be a bigger guy. Josh has more speed and
quickness, has a lot of punch, plays with speed and quickness and a
tough football player too. They're going to have opportunities to come
in and help us.
"At linebacker we signed a bunch of guys last year. That's the good news. The bad news is we had to play just about all of them whether it was on special teams or starting Jordan Mastrogiovanni in the bowl game and Shaan Washington, all those guys that played even with Darian Claiborne being out that last game. Just about all those linebackers we signed besides Reggie Chevis played. People also forget about A.J. Hilliard, the linebacker from Klein Oak who went to TCU and transferred back. He'll be eligible now. The addition of those guys plus A.J., who may as well be considered a recruit, they'll give us depth.
"Do we want to play them all? You guys know me, I don't care — the best guys play. I was talking to a coach the other day who said, 'Things have changed the last six or seven years. Watch the draft and see how many fifth-year seniors get drafted in the first two rounds.' That struck me, and that's a prominent coach who told me that. I hadn't thought about that. It makes a lot of sense to me."
On the balance of the class between offense and defense...
Sumlin:
"Looks like we planned it, huh? I should take credit for that. We set
out to address our needs and I have a number set out by position that is
a wish list of what we want to do. That fluctuates when we have juniors
that leave early, that can change the numbers at the top end, and you
want to replace those first. In our situation we wanted to sign a
quarterback anyway — Kyle Allen was coming whether Johnny was coming
back or not. His commitment was before that, which I think says
something about Kyle Allen. The change was with Mike (Evans); we're
comfortable with our receiver situation because of last year's class.
Ricky being hurt early, will probably be a medical redshirt, didn't play
after that and will have four more years. Add that to the rest of this
group.
"Your scholarship numbers change. Everybody knows where we're at right now, we need help on defense. The ability to jump in there and get a real solid inside defensive tackle who's here in Zay, Myles Garrett, the number one defensive end in the country, that's really going to help us because we need help up front. Jarrett Johnson is a fabulous pass rusher. The emphasis was obviously on D-end and offensive line."
On their timeline for targeting guys and the pressure they may feel to produce...
Sumlin:
"We don't go past two years. There's a lot of things that can happen
past that. We really don't go past, as a junior, we evaluate juniors or
rising sophomores. The sophomores, to get an offer, need to be at a size
level that we think is compatible to play here at that point. And
that's something scary when you talk about a guy who's 14, 15. That
limits our offers from that pool. But there are guys who walk in here at
14 and 15 and you go, 'Wow, that's unbelievable.'
"We spend a lot of time building relationships with juniors. We had our first junior day and a few commitments off that; we'll have another here soon and another wave of juniors. The calendar has moved up, and that's why Signing Day is not dramatic for us as it is for others. If you've done your job, all you're doing is holding on to what you've got and not trying to get a bunch of flipping around done. It's changed with kids, and that's why your location becomes important. The rules have changed — particularly as a head coach, to go out and see kids, the assistants getting to leave campus — it becomes particularly important for prospects to be able to come to your campus.
Sumlin welcomes more blue-chips, attention to Aggieland
Kevin Sumlin's Signing Day press conference
"I guess I'll
start off like the 126 other coaches in the country that will say how
excited they are about this class. This is a class that I think
addresses our needs across the board. We have a plan of how we want to
do things. We've lost some very talented players offensively this year
and we've got to replace those; we had a depth issue last year on
defense and I think the first attempt for us this year was to address
those needs from an offensive line standpoint and the complete defense. "Our coaches were able to do a great job of evaluation, number one, and establish relationships with those guys and get early commits and hold on to them. Last year we signed 32 and we lost one to the Minnesota Twins for five million dollars. They were here and didn't go to other schools, JUCO. This year the numbers were down, which says a couple things — one, that we don't have a lot of attrition even with the guys declaring early — to be ranked where we are speaks volumes. If you look on the TV now, the top 10 or 20 classes, we have less guys — some people are signing up to 36 folks. That tells you the quality of the evaluation of our coaches. It was at a high level this year.
"Across the board we branched out a bit, probably for the first time since we've been here going out of state to Arizona, Louisiana, some junior college situations, Pennsylvania, some other states we hadn't been in before. That speaks to our brand expanding east and our television exposure over the last year. The trend now more than ever, these guys who committed early began to communicate with each other and recruited each other and helped stay together. They really recruited their own class. The early commitment phase is something people have different opinions about; it works for us.
"We were very, very pleased with this class."
On what it says about the program to be able to pull a No. 1 recruit from another state, such as Kyle Allen in Arizona...
Sumlin:
"It's not one thing. There are a lot of factors involved in that. Right
now we've got a lot of momentum, our administration has really
supported this program in an unbelievable way and student athlete
recruits see that, from our stadium to our weight room and nutrition
center to what's going on with renovations to this building ... there's
just a tremendous amount of support. From a facilities aspect, it's
improving. We were on television almost every week. Moving to the SEC
has given us another stage and expanded our footprint. People think
about it expanding east because of who we play, but I know for a fact
with Qualen and Kyle that us being the furthest west team in the SEC has
also given us an appeal that way. "It's not one thing, it's a combination of a lot of things while you're trying to increase your brand, your profile and where your program is nationally. What prospects are seeing is the trend of where we are and where we can be based on the commitment from the University to this program and the competitive games we're in. I've said it in a lot of people's homes: we're a program that's trying to go from eight, nine, ten, eleven wins to twelve, thirteen, fourteen wins.
"Talent makes a huge difference in that. Teams that are at that level ... it's no coincidence that Florida State's where they are. They've had top-five recruiting classes the last four years and you can see that when they play. To get to that level, we have to increase our depth and increase our talent level. Fortunately we're in a situation here where we have the resources and administration that provides us with the facilities we need to recruit players. And they see that."
On having six early enrollees...
Sumlin:
"It's big. We started that last year when we had maybe eight, at least,
when everybody was accusing me of oversigning. Shame on you guys.
That's more of a trend now than it used to be, though. Some guys are
done with high school, they're ready to move on. Recruiting has changed
considerably. We're working with 2015. The early commitment phase has
changed everything because of the fact that guys are just not
committing, they're coming to campus, getting to know you as sophomores
and juniors, making decisions, traveling around, getting to see places
and they know where to go to school. When they're done with their senior
year they're ready to move on. "It works for some and for some it doesn't, but you take our junior college, mid-year guys, they understand it was important to get our offensive linemen in for the spring. Now you've got spring football practice, conditioning, two sets of practices. Kyle graduating early, making a statement that he wants to compete for the starting role, and Speedy also, those guys made a decision to do that a while ago during the recruiting process. It didn't matter where they were going to school, they had that mindset that they were going to go there early and be ready to compete to play.
"It helps a lot. I think you're going to see more and more of that."
On his first impression of Myles Garrett...
Sumlin:
"As a football player? Really good. I was even more impressed when I
went to watch him play basketball two weeks ago. On his visit, it's
interesting, his sister helped us recruit him. She's already here with
our track program. I bugged her a lot. Bugged his parents a lot. We had
everybody but him for a long time. Every time he'd get close to saying
he was going to come to school here he'd get quiet and just drop his
head. I didn't push it because I didn't want to scare him away. "But I went over to (watch him play basketball) and he's out there running around like a deer and he's huge. He comes down, throws it down and he turned and pointed at me. I said, 'I really like this guy.' (Laughter.) 'I'm a fan.' He's 260 now. He was 258 or so on his visit. He took off his shirt after the game and he looks like a Batman costume. He's put together like crazy. There's a reason he's ranked where he is.
"He's got tremendous upside and he's what we need as an edge threat. He's physically mature enough. We'll see where he is. He's explosive off the edge. At the All-Star game the best players in the country had a hard time blocking him; that's encouraging for us."
On the linebackers they signed...
Sumlin:
"They're kind of interesting. They run really well, which is one thing
we really need. Josh (Walker) is a bit different player than (Otaro)
Alaka. Alaka is rangy, longer, had a lot of different options in high
school and is going to be a bigger guy. Josh has more speed and
quickness, has a lot of punch, plays with speed and quickness and a
tough football player too. They're going to have opportunities to come
in and help us. "At linebacker we signed a bunch of guys last year. That's the good news. The bad news is we had to play just about all of them whether it was on special teams or starting Jordan Mastrogiovanni in the bowl game and Shaan Washington, all those guys that played even with Darian Claiborne being out that last game. Just about all those linebackers we signed besides Reggie Chevis played. People also forget about A.J. Hilliard, the linebacker from Klein Oak who went to TCU and transferred back. He'll be eligible now. The addition of those guys plus A.J., who may as well be considered a recruit, they'll give us depth.
"Do we want to play them all? You guys know me, I don't care — the best guys play. I was talking to a coach the other day who said, 'Things have changed the last six or seven years. Watch the draft and see how many fifth-year seniors get drafted in the first two rounds.' That struck me, and that's a prominent coach who told me that. I hadn't thought about that. It makes a lot of sense to me."
On the balance of the class between offense and defense...
Sumlin:
"Looks like we planned it, huh? I should take credit for that. We set
out to address our needs and I have a number set out by position that is
a wish list of what we want to do. That fluctuates when we have juniors
that leave early, that can change the numbers at the top end, and you
want to replace those first. In our situation we wanted to sign a
quarterback anyway — Kyle Allen was coming whether Johnny was coming
back or not. His commitment was before that, which I think says
something about Kyle Allen. The change was with Mike (Evans); we're
comfortable with our receiver situation because of last year's class.
Ricky being hurt early, will probably be a medical redshirt, didn't play
after that and will have four more years. Add that to the rest of this
group. "Your scholarship numbers change. Everybody knows where we're at right now, we need help on defense. The ability to jump in there and get a real solid inside defensive tackle who's here in Zay, Myles Garrett, the number one defensive end in the country, that's really going to help us because we need help up front. Jarrett Johnson is a fabulous pass rusher. The emphasis was obviously on D-end and offensive line."
On their timeline for targeting guys and the pressure they may feel to produce...
Sumlin:
"We don't go past two years. There's a lot of things that can happen
past that. We really don't go past, as a junior, we evaluate juniors or
rising sophomores. The sophomores, to get an offer, need to be at a size
level that we think is compatible to play here at that point. And
that's something scary when you talk about a guy who's 14, 15. That
limits our offers from that pool. But there are guys who walk in here at
14 and 15 and you go, 'Wow, that's unbelievable.' "We spend a lot of time building relationships with juniors. We had our first junior day and a few commitments off that; we'll have another here soon and another wave of juniors. The calendar has moved up, and that's why Signing Day is not dramatic for us as it is for others. If you've done your job, all you're doing is holding on to what you've got and not trying to get a bunch of flipping around done. It's changed with kids, and that's why your location becomes important. The rules have changed — particularly as a head coach, to go out and see kids, the assistants getting to leave campus — it becomes particularly important for prospects to be able to come to your campus.
"We've
had great luck establishing those relationships with kids and coaches.
Our location has helped with that, our proximity to Dallas, Houston, San
Antonio, Louisiana. That's where most of our kids come from."
On honoring Cedric Collins' scholarship...
Sumlin:
"Ced, I guess that Dallas Morning News article came out today, Ced was a
guy that committed to us early. With that commitment he ended up
developing a condition that wouldn't allow him to play, a spinal issue
that became dangerous for him with the possibility of paralyzation. His
family was really concerned at that point. Coach Samples was concerned
about him playing ever again and I said, 'I'm concerned about him ever
playing again.' We have Mike Richardson here and everybody knows the
story. We had to make a decision because I wasn't comfortable with him
playing ever again either.
"Commitment is a two-way street. There have been a number of instances where guys have had stuff pulled on them. His family believed in us early in his career and I just thought it was important that we showed them the same type of commitment that they showed us from the beginning. He was one of our early guys. You bring that family in and they're scared to death; they were looking forward to him not only playing but being able to get an education from Texas A&M. I thought it was important to put them at ease and say, 'No matter what, Ced's going to be with us.'
On honoring Cedric Collins' scholarship...
Sumlin:
"Ced, I guess that Dallas Morning News article came out today, Ced was a
guy that committed to us early. With that commitment he ended up
developing a condition that wouldn't allow him to play, a spinal issue
that became dangerous for him with the possibility of paralyzation. His
family was really concerned at that point. Coach Samples was concerned
about him playing ever again and I said, 'I'm concerned about him ever
playing again.' We have Mike Richardson here and everybody knows the
story. We had to make a decision because I wasn't comfortable with him
playing ever again either."Commitment is a two-way street. There have been a number of instances where guys have had stuff pulled on them. His family believed in us early in his career and I just thought it was important that we showed them the same type of commitment that they showed us from the beginning. He was one of our early guys. You bring that family in and they're scared to death; they were looking forward to him not only playing but being able to get an education from Texas A&M. I thought it was important to put them at ease and say, 'No matter what, Ced's going to be with us.'
"Your
ability to play has nothing to do with whether you're going to come
here on scholarship. That's how we believe in doing things. Sometimes
that gets out and sometimes it doesn't, but I think it says a lot about
the way we do things here. I know the family is appreciative and I know
Coach Samples is appreciative. Commitment is a two-way street."
On Nick Harvey...
Sumlin:
"He's an explosive player, two-way player. He's versatile. He's not a
real tall guy but he's got long arms. He can play corner or safety. The
key for us is to get him in the right position as a young guy and get
him repped, see where he can go. He's a return guy. The key with these
young guys is to get them in the right position and see where it is.
On Nick Harvey...
Sumlin:
"He's an explosive player, two-way player. He's versatile. He's not a
real tall guy but he's got long arms. He can play corner or safety. The
key for us is to get him in the right position as a young guy and get
him repped, see where he can go. He's a return guy. The key with these
young guys is to get them in the right position and see where it is. "He
probably will have a bit of an advantage after we go through spring
ball with a new secondary coach to see where we are with our new guys.
We'll get him in here in June and see where he is. He's already said to
me that he wants to play both ways. I said, 'Listen, let's worry about
one way first and see what we can do.' He's a talented guy; we'll get
him going."
On Terry Price's efforts to build the D-line...
Sumlin:
"He does a great job of building relationships. He's done a fabulous
job with guys on the phone — our guys recruit by area and by position,
both. Our basic process is our assistants have an area they recruit and
then the position coach. I think it's key that a recruit have a good
relationship with the guy that's going to coach him. It's important to
have a relationship with the position coach and area coach. Some people
think that's too much, but you want the kid to be comfortable with both
of them.
"Without a doubt he's really built a rapport with these guys. He's been in this league a long time and his experience shows."
On how much closer they are to being 'there'...
Sumlin:
"I don't believe any coach feels like they're 'there' until he's
holding that ball up. Jimbo may feel like he's there. Until they play
and you get them all here, on paper it looks good but until they play
who knows. This is a place to start. Based on what you've seen in
college football in the BCS era, recruiting has correlated to
championships. A combination of coaching and recruiting. The rankings of
these classes, whether we want to admit it as coaches or not, those
teams have been very strong nationally in the rankings.
On Terry Price's efforts to build the D-line...
Sumlin:
"He does a great job of building relationships. He's done a fabulous
job with guys on the phone — our guys recruit by area and by position,
both. Our basic process is our assistants have an area they recruit and
then the position coach. I think it's key that a recruit have a good
relationship with the guy that's going to coach him. It's important to
have a relationship with the position coach and area coach. Some people
think that's too much, but you want the kid to be comfortable with both
of them. "Without a doubt he's really built a rapport with these guys. He's been in this league a long time and his experience shows."
On how much closer they are to being 'there'...
Sumlin:
"I don't believe any coach feels like they're 'there' until he's
holding that ball up. Jimbo may feel like he's there. Until they play
and you get them all here, on paper it looks good but until they play
who knows. This is a place to start. Based on what you've seen in
college football in the BCS era, recruiting has correlated to
championships. A combination of coaching and recruiting. The rankings of
these classes, whether we want to admit it as coaches or not, those
teams have been very strong nationally in the rankings. "Over
the course of time it can't be one or two, you've got to put these
things together. Hopefully we'll be able to continue that way. I saw
somewhere today we were fourth ... we started second and we were fourth,
and we hadn't done anything. We're third in our own division — not our
league, our division. Are we gaining ground? I hope so. We're doing the
best we can right now. We're pleased with where we are. When you're in
that area, just like playing in this league, you've got to scratch and
claw to stay in that area to be competitive year in and year out."
On having first-round NFL picks and the effect on recruiting
Sumlin:
"It helps, but you have to remember who you're recruiting. One
program's lost 19 underclassmen in two years and they just passed us
today in recruiting. The other program has a bunch of number one picks.
It's all relative. It helps, yes, to be in that category, but we don't
stand alone in this league when you talk about that type of talent.
On having first-round NFL picks and the effect on recruiting
Sumlin:
"It helps, but you have to remember who you're recruiting. One
program's lost 19 underclassmen in two years and they just passed us
today in recruiting. The other program has a bunch of number one picks.
It's all relative. It helps, yes, to be in that category, but we don't
stand alone in this league when you talk about that type of talent. "What
you have to do, what we need to do when you start talking about it,
year-in-year-out, then you're talking about something. Those programs
have been doing it six, seven, eight years. We've got to do it over
time, not just once in a while. Is it a good thing? Yes. But to be where
we want to be, that needs to be a topic of conversation every other
year or every year. Then you're talking about a program instead of just a
couple teams, if that makes sense."
On his experience with being a part of the media for the BCS championship...
Sumlin:
"Any time you're involved with something like that it's big for our
University — as long as you don't screw it up. It is live television, so
I'm a bit wary of that. But you always want that exposure. It gives us
exposure and it gives us another chance to really get out in front of
people and tell our story. One of the ways you can do that is get the
type of exposure you want to advertise your program."
On his #YESSIR hashtag and the 'Swagcopter'...
Sumlin:
"The helicopter is still undefeated. We may need to use it more based
on the way it's going. It seriously started off as a convenience — we
were playing after the hurricane situation, playing Florida that first
game, and I was hesitant. I didn't want to miss practice that Thursday
and Sealy was playing on the ESPN game. Ricky Seals-Jones and Kohl
Stewart were playing in that game. The only way we could get there and
back was the helicopter. That wasn't premeditated. It then turned into
what it is now.
On his experience with being a part of the media for the BCS championship...
Sumlin:
"Any time you're involved with something like that it's big for our
University — as long as you don't screw it up. It is live television, so
I'm a bit wary of that. But you always want that exposure. It gives us
exposure and it gives us another chance to really get out in front of
people and tell our story. One of the ways you can do that is get the
type of exposure you want to advertise your program."On his #YESSIR hashtag and the 'Swagcopter'...
Sumlin:
"The helicopter is still undefeated. We may need to use it more based
on the way it's going. It seriously started off as a convenience — we
were playing after the hurricane situation, playing Florida that first
game, and I was hesitant. I didn't want to miss practice that Thursday
and Sealy was playing on the ESPN game. Ricky Seals-Jones and Kohl
Stewart were playing in that game. The only way we could get there and
back was the helicopter. That wasn't premeditated. It then turned into
what it is now. "The only problem I have right
now is all the players wonder why I don't take the helicopter to their
game. Yes, I did take it to Myles Garrett's game. It was important there
too. It's a real recruiting tool, particularly when you're trying to
get to Dallas or Houston after practice. Anybody who's been on 290 after
5:00 knows it's impossible. I couldn't even get to the school by 6:30
if I left here at 5:00.
"(The hashtag) is just something that we use. That's ... about it."
On the progression of last year's redshirts...
Sumlin:
"I haven't seen them. I've been gone recruiting. We start school the
13th of January and we had Signing Day today. The first time I've seen
these guys was Monday, the dead period. Coach Jackson's got them. We're
going to have spring football early this year, I think we start the 28th
of February.
"(The hashtag) is just something that we use. That's ... about it."
On the progression of last year's redshirts...
Sumlin:
"I haven't seen them. I've been gone recruiting. We start school the
13th of January and we had Signing Day today. The first time I've seen
these guys was Monday, the dead period. Coach Jackson's got them. We're
going to have spring football early this year, I think we start the 28th
of February. "We're rolling. We're three
weeks out from starting football again. I'll be able to answer your
question a lot better at that point. We've been working until this
morning at 10:00. Now we can move on. We've got three or four weeks here
where we can do some things as coaches, re-evaluate what we've done
offensively, defensively and on special teams, take a few visits and
have some people come here, then start practice."
On taking recruits from Texas and locking down the state...
Sumlin:
"We've always been able to, from the first time we got here, have a
couple guys we were able to get turned around. That's always going to
happen in this state, there's a lot of good players and over the course
of time people keep recruiting them. The thing that was great about Zay
was he was a mid-year guy at D-line, which we needed. A 315-pound
interior D-lineman. There's always going to be recruiting battles in
this state for the really good players and hopefully you win more than
you lose."
On showing recruits the new Kyle Field...
Sumlin:
"Their reaction is fabulous. I've worked a lot of places where you had
drawings and renderings and nothing ever happened. You park a bulldozer
outside and say, 'Trust me, it's going to come.' But you show the Kyle
Field video and they look outside of the R.C. Slocum Nutrition Center
and say, 'Wow.' Until you see that you don't understand the magnitude of
this project. You talk about 450 million dollars and that doesn't seem
real, it's not tangible to a lot of people. Moms, dads, prospective
student-athletes, they see it and it's kind of overwhelming.
"A former player, Jonathan Stewart, was here yesterday working out and he walked in and said, 'I cannot believe in the last two years, the Davis Center, this lobby, the nutrition center ... I can't believe it.' He was walking around with his mouth open, looking around. The lobby and nutrition center weren't even here when Stew left. The commitment the University and the administration have had to this program in the last 12 months has been spectacular — the greatest stadium renovation project ever.
On taking recruits from Texas and locking down the state...
Sumlin:
"We've always been able to, from the first time we got here, have a
couple guys we were able to get turned around. That's always going to
happen in this state, there's a lot of good players and over the course
of time people keep recruiting them. The thing that was great about Zay
was he was a mid-year guy at D-line, which we needed. A 315-pound
interior D-lineman. There's always going to be recruiting battles in
this state for the really good players and hopefully you win more than
you lose."On showing recruits the new Kyle Field...
Sumlin:
"Their reaction is fabulous. I've worked a lot of places where you had
drawings and renderings and nothing ever happened. You park a bulldozer
outside and say, 'Trust me, it's going to come.' But you show the Kyle
Field video and they look outside of the R.C. Slocum Nutrition Center
and say, 'Wow.' Until you see that you don't understand the magnitude of
this project. You talk about 450 million dollars and that doesn't seem
real, it's not tangible to a lot of people. Moms, dads, prospective
student-athletes, they see it and it's kind of overwhelming. "A former player, Jonathan Stewart, was here yesterday working out and he walked in and said, 'I cannot believe in the last two years, the Davis Center, this lobby, the nutrition center ... I can't believe it.' He was walking around with his mouth open, looking around. The lobby and nutrition center weren't even here when Stew left. The commitment the University and the administration have had to this program in the last 12 months has been spectacular — the greatest stadium renovation project ever.
"Prospects have taken notice. They see
the commitment the University has to this program and I think it makes a
huge difference when you go into homes and high schools and people see
that. It's a combination of things, but walking in and looking at that
stadium — the video is powerful — they say, 'Whoa. That's something
else. Are you sure you're going to be able to play there next year.' I
say, 'Hopefully. It looks good to me.'"
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